The SNV Omaha sped through the blackness of space. Captain Eric Thornton sat in his chair on the bridge thinking to himself. Curtis Fry stood next to him all the while glaring at Manfred Wernstrom, who was doing his best not to make eye-contact with either of them. 'You should not have brought me with you, they cannot know I told you.'

Thornton turned and stared hard at Wernstrom. 'Maybe you should have considered that before you went into a deal with a clan of space pirates! Now, we are arriving at the coordinates you gave us, are you sure this is where the base is?' 'Well, if I'm lying you'll throw me in the Titan Penal Colony right?' 'We still might.' Curtis said. Manfred whimpered.

Vegabond Station One, Space Pirate Base

The base was constructed out of junked spaceships and parts of old space stations. It was built on top an a large planetoid and had a 150ft Jolly Roger painted on the side of it. Thornton stared at it through the view screen. 'Space Pirates have knack for subtlety.' he said sarcastically.

Right Hook Bar, Vegabond Station One

Morrigan DeWitt sat at the bar. A large muscular man, he was not a man to smeg with. He had a long scar down the side of his face and his right harm had been lost in a battle with the Space Navy in the Aldebaran System seven years ago.The bionic arm that replaced it was twice as strong and could snap a man in two as easily as snapping a pencil. In short, he was not a very nice person. DeWitt took a swig from his bottle of Davey Jones' Liquor as Demetry, his robot parrot flapped into the bar. 'Chieftain DeWitt! Chieftan DeWitt! There is a UESN ship approaching and they want to speak to you!' DeWitt scowled 'I knew I shouldn't have trusted that Wernstrom! I'll crack open his skull and eat the insides! Then I'll rip out his intestines and use them as make-shift Christmas decorations! And then I'll kick his dog!' 'Have you skipped your Ritalin medication today?' asked Demetry. 'Just shut up and put the Navy guy on!' Demetry sighed and opened his beak the voice of Captain Thornton came out of it. 'This is Captain Eric Thornton of the SNV Omaha, I am here to inform you that you are under arrest on suspicion of kidnapping. If you come quietly, you might get a reduced sentence.' DeWitt smirked 'Well, 'Captain Thornton' I have a reduced sentence for you; prepare to die you imperialistic space-nazi!'

Omaha Bridge

Thornton balked 'Well now, *that* was uncalled for!' 'Keptin,' Ensign Smirnov said from the helm 'Dere are Sevwal enemy wessels apwroching from east of our pwosition reqwest we take ewasive action.' 'That a negative, Ensign, Ensign Kwan, bring our weapons system online.' 'Aye sir.' said Ensign Kwan. 'Err, Captain,' Curtis said 'Are you sure this is a good idea, it could be a while before and reinforcements arrive and these pirates have us seriously outgunned.' 'If its a fight these pirates want its a fight they'll get.' 'But surely you can't expect to be able to fend them off for long.' 'I'll hold them off as long as I have to, Curtis, and don't call me Shirley!

3034

Joorik's spaceship was very small and cramped. 'Could this thing be any smaller?' Leo complained. 'This ship was designed with Malzanians in mind, not humans.' Joorik said 'besides we are almost there.' 'And not a moment too soon, I'm starting to lose the feeling in my legs!' Thaarg narrowed his eyes. 'Joorik, why are we slowing down? We still have several lightyears to go.' 'This facility has long range anti-intruder sensors.' replied Joorik. 'If we go any further Malzanian security ships will blast us out of the sky.' 'Well how will we get in?' asked Leo. Joorik smiled conspiratorially. 'Not to worry,' he said. 'I have a contact inside the facility. I am sending him the signal to fake a sensor malfunction to let us through undetected.' 'You think of everything, don't you, Joorik?' Thaarg said. 'That's why you love me.' there was a pause followed by a beeping sound from the ships console. Joorik grinned. 'We are in.' he said.

The Malzainian Transport Pod drove up to the perimeter of the complex. Valarx, gripped the controls like his life depended on it. And it did. If the Malzanian authorities discovered that he was smuggling people into a top secret research outpost, not least a homicidal intergalactic war criminal, a disgraced CEO and an enemy of the Malzanian Government...well, he had no idea, but as his government was known to persue people across entire galactic quadrents for un payed parking tickets, he could imagine it wouldn't be very pleasant. The security guard at the booth glanced at him surveyingly. "Morning, Valarx, hows the wife?' he asked. 'Ah..you know how it is. Still busting my chops for alimony money.' Valarx said all the while hoping the guard didnt notice the patches of sweat forming under his shirt sleeves. 'Aint that the truth.'the guard said, laughing. And with that he turned off the security force field. Valarx thanked him and drove through. As soon as the Transport was out of sight Valarx got out and opened the pods cargo hold doors.

There huddled in side with looks of discomfort on their faces was Thaarg, Leo and Joorik. 'That was worse that flying with Delta!' Leo moaned.

'I am *so* sorry,' Varlarx said sarcastically. 'If I had known I was going to be aiding and abetting a wanted war -criminal, I would have rented a hover -limo!'

3046
Galatea System

The SLASS Brannigan and the SLASS Ureboned II entered the outskirts of the solar system. The Crew looks uneasily at Leela as she sat brooding in the Brannigan's command chair. It had been a week since Fry had gone back in time and many felt uneasy about talking to Leela beyond obeying orders and relaying messages. An Ensign entered the bridge. "Captain Leela, Captain Rodreguez has teleported aboard from the Ureboned,. He wishes to speak with you.' 'Cant it wait?' Leela said snappishly.''He insisted.' the Ensign said. 'Very well,' Leela sighed.

Leela paced the floor of her ready room when Bender entered. Despite his lack of facial muscles, Leela could see the apprehension in his face.

'Listen, Leela, we have known each other for 46 years, that's long enough to be able to tell when somethings bothering you. So, c'mon, take that bug out your ass and tell me whats the matter.' 'My husband is gone, Bender, gone. And the worst part is....I mean, it would be easier if he had left me for another woman, or told me he was gay or gotten eaten by a giant space-iguana, that at least would have given me some closure. It would have at least made *sense*. But this? My husband isn't here because he has to fulfill some prophecy about the fate of the universe, by causing some kind of per-destination paradox that will allow the fate of the future to be decided in the past. How in zarking hell does that make sense? That sounds like something an amateur sci-fi novelist would come up with if he drank too much cough syrup!'

2011
England, United Kingdom, Earth

Daniel Leicester looked up and frowned at what he had just written. "Why in Benny Hill's name did I write that?' he said to himself.

He then shrugged his shoulders, took another swig of cough syrup and continued writing.

3046

Bender looked helpless 'Leela, I hate to see you like this. Lele tells me you have been throwing yourself into your work and you punched four crew members in the face this week. That's twice your usual number.' 'I know, Bender, I just....miss him so much!' Leela began to cry uncontrollably.

'Leela, I know this might seem strange, coming from a cold, emotionless machine like myself but I know how you feel. Fry was my best friend, my only real friend. Before I met him, I was a loner, I clocked in at the bending plant bent a few girders and then clocked out at the end of the day. Now, don't get me wrong, I love bending girders as much as the next Bending Unit, heck, I'm programmed to, but even so, I always felt lonely, all the robots at the plant would talk about was girders. Girders girders girders. It was enough to make you wanna kill yourself. Which is what I would have done if Fry never mistook that suicide booth for a phonebox. Fry thought I was the coolest thing ever, he was from a world where robots existed only in sci-fi movies and hallucinations of meth addicts. Fry told me he always wanted a robot as a friend, ever since he was six. And it was then I was convinced of two things, that Fry was gonna be my best friend forever and that he must have been the dumbest six year old who ever lived.'

Leela smiled. In a bizarre way, that did make feel better. 'Thanks, Bender.' she said. 'Anytime Big-Boots. Now lets go find out what happened to the Omaha!'